Mexico’s Five horsemen of the Apocalypse: FCH

Posted onMay 4, 2010|Comments Off on Mexico’s Five horsemen of the Apocalypse: FCH

Speaking in Berlin, President Calderón gave this perspective on Mexico’s challenges and performance:

I can say to you, my friends, that during the past year we faced not just four, but five Horsemen of the Apocalypse. These riders were:

First, this … influenza virus. …We had the global economic crisis. The Mexican economy was very close to the epicenter, very near the eye of the hurricane. …We had, obviously, the crisis coming from the violence of the organized crime groups one against the other, which basically affected certain areas of the country. …We also had the second worst drought in almost 70 years. And, fifth, we had the largest decline in oil production in Mexico’s entire history.

However, my friends, we are putting these five problems behind us, and we are overcoming them with determination.

Today, for example, we have clearly overcome the flu pandemic. More than 30 million vaccine doses have been given or are being given in Mexico.We now have the hospital capacity to face up to any emergency of this kind. Allow me to say that in the three years of my government, we have built or remodeled 1,500 hospitals clinics or across the country. … Turning to economic matters; today our economy is growing at a 4.2% rate, which is the IMF forecast. And we are generating jobs. The April jobs number is still to be confirmed, but we are expecting that during the first four months of the year 380,000 formal-sector jobs were created, the fastest job growth for a four month period in the last 10 years. We have also resolved the problem of providing drinking water to the population, despite the grave risks that we faced, especially in Mexico City, and we have stabilized the production of oil at 2.6 million barrels per day. In conclusion, my friends, we are overcoming the crisis.